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154 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland In Sussex, Sir E. Loder knows it as an uncommon hedgerow tree of no great size, and Mr. Stephenson Clarke, of Borde Hill, also tells me that it occurs there, and more commonly in the Isle of Wight, where, in Bridlesford Copse, Woolton, a wood of about 200 acres, are perhaps two dozen old trees, which differ in appearance from the Sussex ones in assuming a somewhat pendulous habit of branching when well grown. I find no mention of the occurrence of the tree in the New Forest, and the Hon. G. W. Lascelles does not know it there. We have no record of Pyrus torminalis as a planted tree in Scotland, except that the Rev. Dr. Landsborough x notes a tree in vigorous health in Bellfield Avenue, Kilmarnock, which was 2 feet 9 inches in girth in 1893. He calls it the English service tree or table rowan, and adds that, in spite of its Latin name, the fruit is pleasant. In Ireland the tree is very rare. Henry saw, however, a fine specimen in 1903, at Adare, Limerick, which measured 53 feet by 5 feet 10 inches. The fruit is ripe late in October, when it falls, if not previously eaten by birds, and the seeds, which only seem to mature in warm summers, should be sown at once, or kept in sand exposed to the weather and sown in spring, when they will germinate the next year. Seedlings raised by me from seed gathered at Les Barres, France, which were sown 7th July 1902, germinated 9th March 1903, and were on 14th October 1904 I to 2 feet high. The leaves turn a reddish yellow in autumn, when the tree is decidedly ornamental, though, on account of its slow growth, it does not seem to have any value as a forest tree, and is rarely procurable from nurserymen in this country. TIMBER Pyrus torminalis is unknown as a timber tree in the trade owing to its scarcity, and is mentioned by Boulger 2 only as " a small tree, sometimes 30 feet high, with wood practically identical in character and uses with that of the rowan." Stone does not mention it at all, and Marshall Ward, in his edition of Laslett, says nothing worth quoting. I am indebted to Mr. Stephenson Clarke for a log of the timber, which resembles that of the whitebeam tree, being hard, heavy, and, according to Loudon, weighing, when dry, 48 Ibs. per cubic foot. Mr. Weale, of Liverpool, reports as follows on a sample of this wood which I sent him : " Of a hardness between true service tree and whitebeam. Rays on transverse section just visible, a little narrower than sycamore, but wood generally exhibits similar characters. Takes a good finish, but this is not lasting, the ring boundaries rising after exposure. Seasons fairly well, shrinks a little, and rather inclined to twist." Evelyn says that "the timber of the sorb is useful to the joiner, of which I have seen a room curiously wainscotted; also to the engraver of woodcuts, and for most that the wild pear tree serves." (H. J. E.) 1 Annals of Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers' Society, 1 894, p. 11. 8 Woods of Commerce, 3 12. Pyrus PYRUS LATIFOL1A, S ERVICE TREE OF FONTAINEBLEAU Pyrus fafifolia, Boswell Syme, Bot. Exchange Club Report, 1 872-1874, p. 19 (1875). Pyrus rotundifolia, Bechstein, N. E. Brown in Eng. Bot. iii. ed. Suppl. 164 (1892). Craltegus latifolia, Lamarck, Flore Franfaise, ed. i. 486 (1778). Sort/us latifolia, Persoon, Sy/i. PI. ii. 38 (1807). A tree, attaining a height of 60 feet in France, with smooth, grey bark, which becomes fissured at the base in old trees. Leaves broadly oval, with a broad, rounded, or truncate base and an acute apex; margin with small triangular lobes, decreasing in size from the base of the leaf upwards, dentate and mucronate, the sinuses opening between the lobes almost at a right angle. The leaves are firm in texture, shining and glabrous above, tomentose and greyish green beneath, with 6 to io pairs of lateral nerves prominent underneath. Flowers in moderate-sized corymbs, never long peduncled. Fruit globular, ^ inch diameter, smooth, reddish, marked with brown dots, flesh edible ; containing two cells, one seed in each cell, or more often one cell with one seed, the other cell containing two aborted ovules. The description just given is drawn up from Fontainebleau specimens ; and trees absolutely identical are said to occur in various forests in Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et- Marne, Marne, Aube, and Yonne. A series of forms, 1 however, occur in the forests of the east of France, in Alsace- Lorraine, Spain, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, and Bosnia, which differ slightly in the general outline of the leaf and in the colour and marking of the fruit; and these are supposed to be hybrids between Pyrus Aria and Pyrus torminalis, between which species they oscillate in the characters of the foliage and fruit; whereas, according to French botanists, the tree of Fontainebleau is a true species, as it repro duces itself naturally by seed; and, moreover, one of the supposed parents, Pyrus Aria, is not, according to Fliche, wild in the forest of Fontainebleau. 2 However, the differences are trifling; and it is convenient, in the present state of our know ledge, to treat these supposed hybrids as varieties of Pyrus latifolia. VARIETIES Var. rotundifolia (Bechstein). 3 Leaves broadly oval or suborbicular, sometimes even broader than long, truncate or rounded at the base, sub-obtuse at the apex ; lobes obtusely cuspidate. Var. decipiens (Bechstein). 4 Leaves elongated with acute bases, much resembling 1 These may be called, if their hybriclity is considered to be established, Pynis Ario-torminalis, Garcke, Flora -van Deutschland, ed. 17, 207 (1895). Fliche, in Mathieu, Flore Forestiere, 1 77 (1897), sums up the question thus: Fontaine bleau tree not a hybrid, near to Pyrus Aria, a true species, seed germinating readily and producing natural seedlings ; Lorraine tree nearer to Pyrus lorminalis than to Pyrus Aria, a true hybrid, seeds rarely perfect. Rouy et Fourcaud, Flore de France, vii. 22 (1901), suggest that the Fontainebleau tree is a hybrid fixed and behaving as a true species. Sec also Irmisch in Bol. Zeitung, 1 859, p. 277. 2 Cf., however, p. 156, note 2. 3 Pynis rottmdifolia, Bechstein, Forslbotanik, 1 52 and 316, t. 5, 1843. 4 Pyrus decipiens, Uechslein, loc. ctl. 1 52 and 321, t. 7.
156 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland those of Pyrus intermedia, except that the lobes are triangular pointed, and not rounded as in that species, the sinuses never being acute at their bases. Var. semilobata (Bechstein). 1 Leaves oval or elliptic oval, acute at the apex, narrowed at the base, lobes sharply cuspidate. IDENTIFICATION In summer the leaves are distinguishable from those of Pyms intermedia by the characters of the lobes and sinuses ; while broad-leaved forms differ from Pyrus torminalis in being tomentose beneath, the lobes never being so long as in that species. The tomentum wears off the under surface of the leaf towards the end of the season, and is never so dense or so persistent as in intermedia. On Plate 44 figures are given of leaves from wild trees occurring at Symond's Yat (Fig. 9) and Minehead (Fig. 11), and from a cultivated tree at Kew (Fig. 12). In winter a tree cultivated at Kew showed the following characters, represented in Plate 45- Twigs: long shoots, shining, round, glabrous, except for a little pubescence near the tip ; lenticels numerous as oval prominent warts ; leaf-scars set somewhat obliquely on prominent, often greenish cushions ; crescentic with three bundle dots, of which the central one is the largest. Terminal bud oval, much larger than the side buds, which come off the twigs at a very acute angle, with their apices bent inwards. All the buds are viscid, pubescent at the tip, and composed of oval scales, which are keeled on the back, ciliate in margin, and short-pointed at the tip. Short shoots ringed, slightly pubescent, ending in a terminal bud. In the specimens examined the leaf-scar at the base of the terminal bud had acute lateral lobes not observed in other species of Pyrus ; but these are probably not always present. DISTRIBUTION The tree was first discovered in the forest of Fontainebleau, 2 and was described by Valliant 3 as " Cratsegus folio subrotundo, serrato, et laciniato." Duhamel du Monceau gave a figure of the leaf in his classic work. 4 The distribution on the Continent of the type, and of the forms allied to it, has been given above. In England a small tree, of somewhat rare occurrence, grows wild in woods 1 Pyrus semilobata, Bechstein, loc. cit. 1 52 and 317, t. 6. 2 I visited Fontainebleau in 1905 on purpose to see this tree at home, and found only small trees of it in full flower on 14th May. I was informed by M. Reuss, Inspector of Forests at Fontainebleau, that the tree grows scattered only in the part which is called Montenflainme and Mont Merle, where the sand is covered by the calcareous strata of Beaune, so that the tree is evidently peculiar to calcareous formations. Formerly the trees were cut with the underwood, but are now reserved on account of their rarity, as well as the whitebeam and P. torminalis, which M. Reuss considers to be indigenous at Fontaine bleau, and therefore admits the possibility of their hybridising. The largest tree known to him is on Mont Merle, at the corner of the roads d'Anvers et de 1'Echo in the i6th serie, and is 40 centimetres in diameter, or about 4 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground. It is known to the peasants at Fontaineblcau as bagnenaudier or elorsier, but is generally termed by French botanists alisier de Fontaineblcau.—(H. J. E.) 3 Botanicon Parisiense, ed. 3, p. 63 (1727). 4 Traitt des Arbres, i. 194, t. So, fig. 2 (1755). Pyrus '57 in Cornwall, South Devon, and Gloucestershire, 1 which is very near to, if not absolutely identical with, the Fontainebleau tree, as some of the specimens have leaves which resemble rather those of the varieties rotundifolia and semilobata. The South Devon tree produces fertile seed, 2 which has been planted, and the offspring differs in no respect from the wild trees. In English trees the flowers are reported to have a disagreeable odour, 3 and the fruit ripens in the end of October or November. When fully grown, but still hard, it is olivaceous brown in colour, with numerous scattered small brown or grey dots; but when quite mature it becomes reddish. At Minehead in Somerset, the Nightingale Valley and Leigh Woods near Bristol, and at Castle Dinas Bran, Denbigh, the variety decipiens occurs. 4 Mr. E. S. Marshall observed a remarkably fine specimen with good fruit on the Conan river in East Ross-shire; but as no other specimen was seen this tree is probably not wild in that locality. The tree in Earl Bathurst's woods near Cirencester has given rise to some difference of opinion. It was identified at Kew as Pyriis intermedia ; but in the specimens which I have seen the leaves have the triangular lobing and tomentum of Pyrus latifolia, and I have no doubt that it is this species. 5 Its foliage is very variable, some leaves being broad, with rounded bases like the type, whilst others have narrowed bases, and approximate in outline to the decipiens variety. REMARKABLE TREES Pyrus latifolia is seldom planted except in botanical gardens, as at Kew, Edin burgh, and Glasnevin. There are several fine trees at Edinburgh, one of which was figured in the Gardeners Chronicle* for 1882, when it was 45 feet high by 5 feet 3 inches in girth. Professor Balfour had the tree measured again in January 1904, when it was 45 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches in girth. A year or two before it was considerably pruned on the top branches, and this probably accounts for it not being higher in 1904 than it was in 1882. Professor Balfour kindly sent me specimens of the Edinburgh trees, which, though they differ slightly, are all referable to Pyrus latifolia. H e informed me that while the birds eat the fruit off one tree as soon as it is ripe, in another the fruit remains on the tree untouched. The variability of the fruit in this species is remarkable, and points undoubtedly to hybrid origin. A tree exists at Oakleigh House, 7 near Keynsham in Somerset, which was planted many years ago. (A. H.) 1 " Occurs at Bicknor, Coldwell, and Symond's Yat, which form a single range of wooded limestone rock in West Gloucestershire, about f mile in length." Rev. A. Ley, Bot. Exchg. Club Report, 1 893, p. 415. "French Hales" is the name given to this species in Devon, according to Britten and Holland, Diet. Eng. Plant Names, p. 194 (1886). They state that the fruits are sold in Barnstaple market. These authors call the tree Pyrus scandica, as, at the time they were writing, its identity with the Fontainebleau tree was not established. 2 Briggs,/0«ir. Bot. 1 887, p. 209, and 1888, p. 236. 3 Briggs, Flora of Plymouth, 1 44 (1880); and Boswell, Bot. Exchg. Club Report, 1 872-74, p. 20. 4 Cf. N. E. Brown, loc. cit. 1 65. Mr. J. White reports a tree 30 feet high in Leigh Wood (Bot. Exchg. Club Report, 1902, p. 45). 6 Mr. Hickel, Inspecteur des eaux et forets, who knows the Fontainebleau tree well, and to whom I sent specimens, is of my opinion. 6 Vol. xviii. 749. * Jour. Bot. 1 899, p. 488.
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»f rees Great Britain Ireland BY H
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Trees of Great Britain Ireland BY H
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PREFACE THE United Kingdom offers a
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CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION ........ v
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The Trees of Great Britain and Irel
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The Trees of Great Britain and Irel
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8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ir
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12 The Trees of Great Britain and I
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32, The Trees of Great Britain and
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SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PI.
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Page 113 and 114: a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
Page 115 and 116: INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
Page 117 and 118: 13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
Page 119 and 120: BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
Page 121 and 122: I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
Page 123 and 124: KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
Page 125 and 126: AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
Page 127 and 128: SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
Page 129 and 130: ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
Page 131 and 132: ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
Page 133 and 134: MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
Page 135 and 136: TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
Page 137 and 138: TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
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PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
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•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
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CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
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CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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